The hope of a former Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, to return to office suffered a setback on Friday as a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos dismissed a suit seeking his reinstatement.
Justice Okon Abang, who struck out the suit for want of merit, also awarded a cost of N70,000 against the applicant.
A Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, had on August 8, 2014, filed the suit.
Following the adoption of the report of a seven-man investigation panel, which indicted Nyako of 16 counts of gross misconduct, Nyako was impeached on July 15, 2014 by the state House of Assembly.
But the lawyer, who said he filed the suit in the interest of the public, had asked the court to declare the impeachment as unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.
Delivering judgement in the suit on Friday, Justice Abang held that the lawyer lacked the locus standi to institute the action, adding that the suit did not qualify as public interest suit.
Stating that only Nyako had the right to challenge his own impeachment, the judge described Ogungbeje as a meddlesome interloper.
He said the applicant should have allowed Nyako to carry his own cross, rather than crying more than the bereaved.
